


two hearts met breathlessly

by poesword



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Exams, F/F, Jazz Music, in which i learn that i am a huge sucker for jazz and affection, sheragiftexchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2020-01-07 06:20:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18404867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poesword/pseuds/poesword
Summary: exams are tough. sometimes glimmer needs a little break.





	two hearts met breathlessly

**Author's Note:**

> this is my gift to blueskittles-art for the easter gift exchange! i hope i did “domestic glimadora” justice!

April was a difficult month for Glimmer. Final exams had been slowly creeping closer, drawing in careful breaths until they were hot air at the back of her neck. She knew her course load was a bit more ambitious than advised and her professors were weeding out as many students as possible, but somehow, between the all-nighters and coffee breaks and deadlines, Glimmer found herself face-to-face with possibly the worst two weeks of her entire twenty-three-year-old life.

—

“Oh stars,” Glimmer gulped.

 

Adora set down the bag of groceries with a puzzled look.

 

“What it is, Glim?”

 

“Oh _stars_.”

 

Adora snorted, her fond smile softening her rolled eyes. She started stocking the fridge, pausing to steal a few berries from a basket to munch on.

 

“Darling, could you be a bit more specific?”

 

Glimmer spun around on the stool by the kitchen counter and held out her class schedule for Adora to read.

 

It took a few moments, but as soon as she realized that the many shaded boxes _weren’t_ days off, her eyes went wide. She gaped at the calendar. Adora’s eyes met Glimmer’s and then she echoed her girlfriend’s words.

 

“ _Oh_ _stars._ ”

—

So April was rough. Glimmer spent most of the days sprawled out on the open floor space of her and Adora’s quaint apartment, notes upon notes upon notes stacked and covering nearly every surface. Empty cups of coffee and microwavable ramen packages built up in the sink. Glimmer’s study playlist echoed from the tinny speaker of her old iPod, filling the room with the sweet, mellifluous sound of bass-heavy synth-pop 80s music that had begun to reverberate in her head when there was _supposed_ _to be_ silence.

 

Adora, through it all, had tried her best to take care of Glimmer where the latter girl had fallen short in her stress. Adora would come home from work late at night (or early in the morning, as her night shifts tended to go past the midnight mark), kissing her girlfriend on the forehead and needling her to eat something with more vitamins and less sodium. On the days that Glimmer had exams, Adora would wake her up with a gentle nudge, pressing a glass of water into her hands and set off making breakfast while Glimmer got ready. When Adora would return to their apartment from work and find a passed out Glimmer on the couch with the next exam’s notes spilling from her loosened grip, she would tuck a warm blanket over her girlfriend and organize her papers neatly on the table. While Adora knew that the pressure was high for Glimmer, she also knew that her girlfriend was smart and clever and determined and that she would go _far_ beyond her professors’ expectations. Glimmer seemed to have yet to figure this out herself. The air in their little apartment had gotten thin and high-strung as the last of the exams rolled in. Glimmer felt as if the slightest inconvenience would cause her to burst into tears, and both of the apartment’s inhabitants treaded warily in case of such an incident. And such an incident nearly happened when Glimmer got fed up with the endless 80s music and went to shut off her iPod only to knock over a mug of hot coffee onto its screen. Adora had found her an hour later, sitting on one of the stools by their kitchen counter, pouting at a bag of rice.

—

“Do you want to talk about it?”

 

“Not really.”

 

“Would you like my old ass iPod shuffle?”

 

“Yes, _please,_  oh stars above.”

—

But then the _final_ final exam approached, and with it came an uncharacteristically peaceful interlude. The two had run out of coffee and resorted to the unopened box of tea bags given to them by Glimmer’s mother as a housewarming gift. Despite the appearance of heavy bags under Glimmer’s eyes, she was actually getting a reasonable amount of sleep for the past couple days, a fact of which eased Adora’s worried heart.

 

It all came rushing back the night before the last exam.

 

Glimmer was pacing back and forth in the kitchen, muttering to herself frustrated and fed up. As soon as she spotted Adora taking off her shoes at the front door, she stumbled over to her and held out her notes.

 

“ _PleasetestmeontheseIthoughtIknewthembutIknowforsurenowthatIcan’trememberasinglething --_ ”

 

“Woah!” Adora held up her hands, studying her girlfriend’s wife eyes. She set the notes down on a table and took Glimmer’s hands into hers. “Deep breaths, Glim. You know you can’t think straight when you’re all wired like this. Take a break--”

 

“I _can’t_ take a break!” Glimmer groaned. She stomped her foot and gestures wildly with her hands. “If I take a break then I _break_ my rhythm, that’s why they’re called ‘ _breaks_ ’, they don’t _do_ anything!”

 

An amused smirk laced itself onto Adora’s lips. She led her babbling girlfriend back into the kitchen, filling up a glass with water and handing it to Glimmer before disappearing into their bedroom. Meanwhile, Glimmer got a bit carried away with the uselessness of study breaks.

 

When Adora reappeared, Glimmer was still talking and shaking her head, only now she was attempting to speak while gulping down the water.

 

“And stars above! Why do the counsellors keep suggesting we go on our phones as a break? Like, the whole human race knows that a 15-minute scroll on Instagram is 2 hours in real time and does absolutely _nothing_ \-- _”_

 

Glimmer found herself at a loss for words when Adora dumped her old record player on the counter. She looked at the dusty hunk of vintage parts, looked up at Adora’s pleased grin, then back down at the machine, mind racing to make sense of what Adora was suggesting.

 

After a few minutes, Adora remembered that there was a reason Glimmer shouldn’t be awake and thinking at nearly three in the morning, and instead of explaining with words, pulled a record out from a bookshelf nearby and popped it onto the player, carefully setting the needle down at the right point.

 

The record crackled to life, bright sounds of piano echoing into the quiet space of their home.

 

Adora walked around the counter until she was beside Glimmer and held out one of her hands. She was still wearing her work uniform, looking a bit dishevelled and exhausted, but the bright twinkle in her eyes said differently.

 

With a gentle grin, Adora said, “May I have this dance?”

 

Glimmer stared at her, blinked a few times, then shook her head with a laugh.

 

“Oh, what the hell.”

 

She fell into Adora’s arms, wrapping her arms around the girl’s waist and hiding a smile in the crook of Adora’s neck.

 

Adora let out a warm chuckle, starting to sway to the jazz that eased out of the old speakers.

 

The motion pulled Glimmer into a pleasant calm. Her thoughts were far away from the impending exam and the only thing that mattered to her right at that moment was how softly her beloved girlfriend was holding her—as if she were a fond memory from childhood, the feeling of ease and joy swirled into the shape of cherished love and affection. It made Glimmer’s teeth ache with how warm and fuzzy the small action made her feel.

 

As the sounds of Sarah Vaughan whispered away and the couple loosened their embrace to dance a bit more freely to some good ol’ Chet Baker, Glimmer let herself wax poetry in her head about Adora. And, from the way her girlfriend was smiling at her, it was evident that she wasn’t the only one with those sentiments.

 

Adora twirled her around and led their loose foxtrot around the kitchen space, sweeping over the aged tiles and stepping over remnants of Glimmer’s sudden study session. Soon, they were laughing and tripping over themselves as their pace quickened to a mindless prance throughout their apartment.

 

“Watch the lamp!” Glimmer chokes out between laughs. Adora stumbled and hip-checked a table, knocking over said lamp into a fortunately-placed basket of folded laundry. The two paused their dancing to stare at the nearly avoided disaster, then broke out into near delirious giggles and resumed their skipping around.

 

The hours sped by, during which a certain re-enactment of a waltz number from a particular High School Musical movie _may_ have occurred, but that is for Glimmer and Adora to know and for all others to question. But by the time the digital clock on their oven read 2:46 in the morning, the record had finished its umpteenth cycle, ending with the soft clicks of the vinyl slowing to a stop. Adora and Glimmer had found their way back to the kitchen, caught up in their tender swaying. Sleep called to them from their bedroom.

 

Glimmer was about two seconds away from falling asleep in Adora’s arms when the latter girl ran an absent hand through her short pink hair and said lowly, “You’ll do spectacular tomorrow, Glim. But you gotta get some sleep first.”

 

Bleary, Glimmer nodded and held back a yawn. She knitted her fingers through Adora’s and weakly tugged her towards their room.

 

Just as Glimmer felt slumber pull her deep into the bed, she felt Adora press her lips to the back of hand, whispering, “Have some sweet dreams, love.”

 

And for the first time in an anxiously dreamless last two weeks, Glimmer did.


End file.
